Abbreviations only on shortcut
This is just a more flexible completion. I made the following (example) to have a unique abbreviation: iabbrev date^A =strftime("%F") Note that ^A is Control-A (insert with ). This is to avoid the completion if you really want to write 'date'. And now this mapping: inoremap a Now type date in insert-mode and you will get the date. Comments So why not just use this? iabbrev date^B =strftime("%F") Admittedly, it requires you to do something after the control-b (such as another key or escape), but you would do precisely the same thing anyway with the original procedure. :The point of this tip seems to be to make a simple abbreviation such as "date" which does not require special entry such as and which you can choose to expand with a shortcut key () or to NOT expand it as you choose. This suggestion defeats the purpose of the tip. ---- The mapping in this tip (to expand the abbreviation) does not work for me. This does: imap Note the use of "imap" rather than "inoremap". I'm not sure if this is needed or not, but it seemed to be for me. is also used rather than (note is a synonym for ) because is "expand abbreviation without inserting another character" whereas the a didn't seem to expand the abbreviation for me (although that may have been because I tried it with inoremap). --Fritzophrenic 22:13, 5 August 2009 (UTC) ---- This tip seems needlessly complicated, and I think the title is unclear. Shortcut can mean many things. Abbreviations I'd suggest are something you'd be unlikely to type in text, without resorting to control sequences, like iabbr date_ =strftime(...) or iabbr ddate =strftime(...). Both are faster for me to type. The abbreviation will be expanded with the next character, or when leaving insert mode. (Spiiph 22:40, 5 August 2009 (UTC)) ---- I have not tried it, and I have only looked very superficially, but I think the original tip did intend Ctrl-[ (Esc). The user is supposed to type "date" then press Ctrl-b. The second mapping converts that ^B to ^A then exits insert mode (which should cause the abbreviation to be expanded to the date), then the mapping uses 'a' to re-enter insert mode. I haven't decided if this is clever or not, but it does overly tricky and I guess it needs some brutal fixing. *610 Use abbreviations for frequently-used words *650 Abbreviation that prompts whether to expand it or not *912 Smart abbreviation *1382 Auto spelling correction using abbreviations Above are some candidates for possible merging. Tip 912 has some comments relevant to the above. JohnBeckett 01:48, 6 August 2009 (UTC) ---- I kind of like the idea behind the tip. One of the reasons that I don't use abbreviations very often is that I feel I would often take longer to remember the particular abbreviation I used for an item than I would to just type it (or use insert-mode completion on it). If all the "mangling" needed to make the abbreviation unlikely to occur in normal text was taken care of by a common mapping rather than me needing to remember it, it might be easier to use. I think this tip is rather clever, though I admit it isn't necessarily that useful to a wide audience. I'm stumped as to why it didn't work with the a...I'm pretty sure you're right as to the intentions there, John, that's what I thought myself. But when I tried it with gvim -N -u NONE, it only inserted ^A^instead of inserting ^A, expanding the abbrev, and re-entering insert mode. It was then that I found the i_CTRL- command and decided it was better than leaving and reentering insert mode anyway. --Fritzophrenic 15:43, 6 August 2009 (UTC)